Anna Banti
Anna Banti, born Lucia Lopresti in Florence in 1895, was a prominent Italian novelist and art historian, known for her significant contributions to post-World War II literature. She adopted the pen name Anna Banti to establish her own professional identity separate from her husband, the esteemed art critic Roberto Longhi. Banti's literary works often reflect her feminist viewpoints, with a particular focus on women's experiences and struggles in patriarchal societies. Her most notable novel, "Artemisia" (1947), is a historical narrative about a female painter in 16th-century Italy, who, despite facing immense challenges, emerges as a powerful figure in the male-dominated art world.
Banti's storytelling skill is evident in her diverse narrative styles, which include perspectives from various characters, enriching the themes of her works. She also produced several acclaimed short story collections, such as "Le donne muoiono" (Women Are Dying) and "Monaca di Sciangai e altri racconti," exploring consciousness and character perspective. Drawing inspiration from literary figures like Virginia Woolf and Sigmund Freud, Banti's writings delve into psychological and social dimensions of her characters. Her career spanned several decades, during which she wrote novels, essays, and film reviews, leaving a lasting legacy upon her death in 1985.
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Anna Banti
Author
- Born: June 27, 1895
- Birthplace: Florence, Italy
- Died: September 25, 1985
Biography
Born Lucia Lopresti in Florence, Italy, in 1895, Anna Banti changed her name in order to differentiate her own professional interests from her husband, Roberto Longhi (1890-1970), a famous Italian art historian and critic. Banti herself had studied art history and seems, through an autobiographical novel—Grido lacerante (1981; a piercing cry)—to have regretted turning from her first artistic love, even though recognized as one of the finest post-World War II Italian novelists in her own right.
As a feminist, Banti’s concerns most clearly appear in works such as Il coraggio delle donne (1940; the courage of women), comprising five long stories in a style of narration the Italians refer to as raconto lungo, with a reoccurring thematic focus upon women who live sheltered, cloistered lives. Artemisia (1947) followed—a historical novel about a woman painter by that name in sixteenth century Italy, a time in which men obviously dominated not only politics and religion, but art as well. As the novel for which Banti remains best remembered, Artemisia focuses upon a young woman who, although raped, humiliated, and resented by her artistic male counterparts, proves not only their equal but better. Banti conceives the novel as a widely varying narrative as seen through the eyes of different people and different perspectives. Interestingly, the shape of the novel also owes much to its earlier draft, completed during the war and burned in 1944, so that Banti had to rewrite the work years later. In so doing, Banti has her first creation seek out her own author in order that her story may once again find life; thus, the historical and fictionalized Artemisia searches for Anna Banti in order to live again.
Banti’s concern with the plight, strength, and resourcefulness of women appears in numerous short stories, such as “Lavinia Has Fled” (1950), which appeared in a collection called Le donne muoiono (1951; women are dying), and which won the Viareggio Prize. Another well-received collection of stories, Monaca di Sciangai e altri racconti (the nun from Shanghai and other stories), appeared in 1957, and once again focuses upon consciousness and perspective, as did Artemisia; this work, however, would move her in the direction of two other famous literary figures: Virginia Woolf and Sigmund Freud. Among Woolf’s novels, noted for the “stream of consciousness” style and Woolf’s fascination with character perspective, appears Jacob’s Room (1922), which Banti translated in 1950. Additionally, Banti’s stories of the 1940’s and 1950’s move in ways reminiscent of Freudian analysis, as Banti herself acknowledged in the preface to her novel, La camicia bruciata (1973; the burning shirt), where she once again returned to history for her subject matter.
Banti’s subject matter combined with her painterly eye, seeing her ladies from the perspectives of men, society, and the past as understood today. She put this stylistic technique to extraordinary use in Allarme su lago (1954; alarm on the lake), a novel with an “envelope” plot structure, wherein a story or stories take place within a primary narrative that frames the others. The novel won Banti her second Italian literary award. She continued to write stories, novels, essays, and even film reviews until her late eighties, dying in 1985.